264 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



raised. This depends mostly on the price of grain and pork, 

 or the proportion they bear to each other. With a good breed 

 of swine, with proper care and attention, pork can be raised for 

 ten cents per pound when corn is one dollar per bushel, or that 

 is about a fair proportion, allowing the manure for the labor. 

 Much care should be taken, not only to select a good breed, 

 but the animals should have comfortable accommodations and 

 regular feeding, as they will then be more quiet; and the more 

 quiet they are kept, the better they will thrive. 



Joseph How, Chairman. 



MIDDLESEX SOUTH. 



Statement of Joseph Jennison. 



I present you a report of last year's experiment in 

 fattening swine. I have found, in my limited experience that 

 too much care cannot be taken in the selection of stock. We 

 are assured by all good farmers, that if we would have good, 

 cattle and good horses, we are to pay attention to the quality, 

 taking particular pains to get the best of the different kinds ; 

 and that if we still desire to improve upon these, we are to be 

 careful about the quality of the animals we intend to u cross" 

 or raise stock from. Does not the same physical law hold in 

 reference to swine ? Are not the best breeds to be procured, 

 and such only as are of the first quality? That "a hog is a 

 hog" is true in one sense only — temperament — and surely this 

 is not a quality that farmers are most interested in. Not every 

 pig in a litter should be kept — it matters not what the stock 

 may be — for they are not equally profitable. Yet, when care is 

 taken, a larger number are so than when no attention is paid to 

 this physical law. My experiments have been with the Mackey- 

 Suffolk and Ahtckey-Cumberland. My success is not always the 

 same ; for I have found, after selecting those which had all the 

 good points when young, at the proper season for fattening, 

 give them as wholesome and nutritious food as I may, in large 

 or small quantities, they have no appetite, eat but little, some- 

 times not coming to the trough more than once a day. These 

 arc exceptions to the rule. But generally the selections prove 

 the best; a good pig, black or white, I always keep. I place 



